Time for economic recovery, finding ‘new normal’ with COVID, Tarrant County judge says
Tarrant County officials for months have focused on preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, requiring people to stay home and stay apart from each other as much as possible.
Now they say it’s time to move on to doing what they can to help revive the economy, especially as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is letting more people go back to work.
“We are no longer concerned about the availability about beds and being able to keep hospitals open,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said Tuesday during the commissioners court weekly meeting. “We’ve been successful.
“It’s now time not to ignore that the virus is out there, but … to begin to get back to what we call the new normal.”
Seven deaths were reported Tuesday in Tarrant County, and Public Health Director Vinny Taneja said during the meeting the number deaths were starting to flatten. Asked about that after the meeting, he told reporters he won’t consider local numbers to have flattened until there’s a drop in deaths for two to three weeks.
As Tarrant leaders are talking about how to financially help businesses throughout the county — except for those in Fort Worth that are receiving assistance from the city — Taneja encouraged residents to continue staying at home as much as possible.
“The more we get together, the more likely there is for a spread of infection,” Taneja said. “Make a personal choice.
“Just because we are reopening, that doesn’t mean everybody has to all come together at the same time,” he said. “My worry is when people totally ignore what the advice has been.”
He’s especially concerned as Memorial Day is around the corner.
He said he realizes that many people likely want to head to the lake or celebrate the holiday with family and friends.
“I know people want to get out and ... have their cookouts and family fun,” he said. “But do it in your individual family unit. Avoid big gatherings is my message.”
Helping cities
Officials say they know that the number of coronavirus cases will grow, especially as testing increases, more categories of people are allowed to get tested and more businesses are opening, as allowed under Abbott’s phase two of reopening Texas.
“You bet,” Whitley said. “As we are testing more and more people, we are going to find that they have it or they had it. And those are the things we expect. ... We’ve got a lot of folks who have had it, recovered from it and moved on.”
As of Tuesday, there have been 4,643 positive cases in Tarrant County, with 130 deaths and 1,586 recoveries.
There were 2,326 available hospital beds and 462 available ventilators in Tarrant County, where 229 patients with coronavirus are in the hospital.
Tarrant County recently received $210 million from the federal government to help cover costs related to COVID-19 through the Coronavirus Relief Fund included in the federal CARES Act.
County workers have reached out to cities throughout Tarrant except for Fort Worth, which directly received federal funding, to see which ones need help with coronavirus costs. The funding can’t be used to make up for lost government revenue, but it can be used to help, for instance, food banks or people who need rent or utility assistance.
Commissioners could divvy up about $62 million of what they received from the CARES Act and share it with those cities in the coming weeks.
Small businesses
At the same time, county officials are working to develop criteria to help small businesses throughout the county.
They received responses to surveys sent out to see what the greatest needs are.
The response from most was that restaurants and retail stores are in great need of help, along with businesses with 10 or fewer employees.
The county has committed to spending about $30 million to help small businesses.
“What I’m trying to do is make sure we don’t just cover expenses, but give our citizens a little bit of income,” Whitley said. “As a result of policies we put in place, many of them were shut down and lost all income.
“I think we’ve got to be very careful about the way we do this.”
Grants could be sent in a matter of weeks once the county finalizes the criteria.
“We need to get the money out to the people who suffered the most over the last few months,” Whitley said.
